The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised. (Deuteronomy 26:16-19 NIV)
Today is our twelfth sermon from the book of Deuteronomy. That’s got to be some sort of record! Deuteronomy is not a book of the Bible we focus on much, but I hope these summer sermons have helped you realize that all of God’s Word is important. Every single little bit! We’ve heard God’s commands to the Israelites long ago about worshiping false gods and stoning people and giving their firstfruits to God and choosing humble kings and not divorcing their wives and having compassion on foreigners and widows and not using dishonest weights and scales. Many are commands that no longer apply to Christians today, but all of God’s Word is useful for us to hear and learn. Today, we hear how Moses ends his sermon to God’s people.
But before we get to Moses’ conclusion, we need to remember something: How did the Israelites long ago become God’s people in the first place? Was it because their race of people was better than everyone else? Of course not. Was it because they were such good people? Nope. Why did God choose them? By grace. It was all by grace. When Adam and Eve sinned, God promised to send a Savior. Completely by grace, God chose Abraham and his descendants to be the nation that the Savior would come from. Moses taught the Israelites, “The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 7:6). The Israelites were God’s treasured possession completely by God’s grace.
So here’s how Moses ended his sermon to them: “The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in obedience to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen to him.” What were God’s people to do? Follow God’s commands with all their heart and all their soul. To be God’s people means you don’t live for yourself. You don’t do whatever you want. You live for God. You do what God wants. How could the Israelites live for God? By keeping his commands.
That wasn’t just true for them. It’s true for us too! The New Testament tells Christians, “This is love for God: to keep his commands” (1 John 5:3). I was talking to a friend this week who has a new employee at his work. The new employee has a great attitude and asked, “What can I do to most help you?” Know what he said? “Do the things I tell you to do.” That makes sense, doesn’t it? “The best way to help me is to do the things I tell you to do.” It’s the same with God. Want to show love for God? It’s not complicated. “This is love for God: to keep his commands.”
Why? Why would the Israelites want to keep God’s commands? Listen: “The LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.” What was their motivation? They were God’s treasured possession! The Bible doesn’t say, “If you obey, God will love you…” It says the opposite, “Because God loves you, you will obey.” See the difference? God had declared the Israelites to be his treasured possession. That sounds good, doesn’t it? What would the Israelites want to do? Obey him!
So how did it turn out? Did the Israelites obey God’s commands? No. Did they love the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul? No. They broke their covenant with God. Think of the commands in the book of Deuteronomy: Did the Israelites worship God alone? No. Did they always bring God their firstfruits? No. Did they use honest weights and measures? No. Did they respect their parents? No. Were they faithful to their wives? No. Did they treat foreigners with compassion? No. Despite all that God had done for them, they sinned and turned away from him.
How could they do that? We know how. We say, “We love God!” But, what is love for God? “To keep his commands.” Do we keep God’s commands? You know those Ten Commandments that Christians talk about all the time? Do you know them? Do you keep them? “You shall have no other gods.” Guilty. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God.” Guilty. “Honor your father and mother?” Guilty. No murder. No adultery. No stealing. No lying. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. “You shall not covet.” Guilty. What are we? Guilty. Just like those Israelites.
So now what? They didn’t keep their part of the agreement. We haven’t either. What would God do? If you make an agreement with someone, and they don’t keep their side of the agreement, what do you do? End the agreement! That’s what they deserved. But God didn’t! There’s a verse in the New Testament that says, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). What a verse! Listen again: “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.” Who is gracious like our God?
Here’s what God did: He kept his promise. He always does! When it was just the right time, God sent the Savior—Jesus. What group of people was he born to? The Israelites, just like God promised. Why? Why did God still keep his promise? Because it’s all by grace. Jesus the Savior took all the Israelites’ sins on himself, and all our sins on himself, and all the sins of the world on himself, and he died on the cross for us. Just like God promised! When God’s people sinned, he saved them. When God’s people ran away from him, he sought them and found them. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful.” What a promise! God didn’t forget his treasured possession.
Actually, God had even bigger plans. He fulfilled his promise to Abraham by having the Savior be born from the people of Israel. But now that Jesus has come, who are God’s people? Who is God’s treasured possession today? There are Christians who insist that the nation of Israel is still God’s treasured possession. I know you’ve heard that. There are Christians who are adamant that Christians must support the nation of Israel, because they are God’s people. Is that true? No. Sadly, already at the time of Jesus, his people rejected him. Israel rejected Jesus as their Savior. Is there salvation apart from Jesus? No! The nation of Israel today is not the nation of God.
So who is? You are! The New Testament says this to all believers in Jesus: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Do you hear what God calls you? All the beautiful words that God used for the Israelites in Deuteronomy are the beautiful words that God uses for Christians today. “A chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.” Who is all those things? Every Christian. You! How? By the grace of God. Every believer in Jesus is God’s treasured possession by the grace of God.
Here’s how Peter describes us: “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10). See the change? Once we were not God’s people. But since Jesus took all our sins away, what has he made us? The people of God! Once we had not received God’s mercy, but now that the Holy Spirit has put faith in Jesus in our hearts, what have we received? God’s mercy! All the beautiful words that the Bible used for the Israelites long ago are true for every Christian today.
Know what that means? You are God’s treasured possession. You are God’s TP. Not his toilet paper. You are God’s TP—his treasured possession. How? By God’s grace through faith in Jesus. You don’t need to do something great for God to accept you. He already has in Jesus. You don’t need to change your life for God to love you. It’s his love for you that will change your life. You don’t have to earn the favor of God. He already declared you righteous through faith in Jesus. The words that Moses spoke to God’s people 3,500 years ago are true for you today: “the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised.”
I pray that the Holy Spirit lead you to believe that. Some of you feel alone. You’ve never found anyone who cared about you. That’s not the whole story. You are God’s treasured possession! Some of you feel neglected. Even your spouse isn’t interested in you. That’s not the whole story. You are God’s treasured possession! Some of you feel all worn-out. Like you have nothing left. That’s not the whole story. You are God’s treasured possession! Some of you feel guilty. Sinful. Used. Like you will never be good enough. You are God’s treasured possession, washed in the blood of Jesus. God has made you holy! Some of you feel totally insignificant. Like you’ve never done anything meaningful in your life. That’s not the whole story. You are God’s treasured possession! How can you be sure? Look at the cross of Jesus. We’re saved by the grace of God.
You need to hear that often. As I was driving this week, I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a truck. It said, “Professional failure.” I wondered what that meant, until I saw the rest of the truck’s bumper stickers. I’m not able to repeat what they said. I think I know why that man has a bumper sticker that says, “Professional failure.” Because he feels like a professional failure. Do you? Nothing goes right. You always fail. Maybe that’s true. Maybe you always fail. But do you know what? That doesn’t matter. Because who you are doesn’t depend on what you do, it depends on what Jesus has done for you. You are God’s treasured possession through Jesus.
This is what motivates our lives as Christians: God’s grace! If you have an employer who really cares about you, what do you do? Work hard! If you have a teacher who shows true compassion, what do you do? Study hard! If we have a God so full of grace, what do we do? Well, finish this sentence: “This is love for God, to keep his commands.” “Carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul…. Walk in obedience to him…. Keep his decrees, commands and laws…. Listen to him.” See how this works? God’s treasured possessions listen to their Lord.
As we’ve heard this summer, Deuteronomy encourages God’s people to be fully committed to the Lord. I heard someone say that the difference between being committed to something and just being involved with something is like the difference between bacon and eggs. Have you heard this before? The difference between being committed to something and just being involved is like the difference between bacon and eggs. With the eggs, the chicken is just involved. With the bacon, the pig is committed. See the difference? Jesus is fully committed to us. He is all in. Jesus gave his life for us! That’s why we want to live for him. Don’t be an eggs Christian. Be a bacon Christian. Why? We’re God’s treasured possession. There’s nothing better!
(To listen to this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior podcast, please click HERE. To watch this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior YouTube channel, please click on the link below.)
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